Posting this up in case anyone had dirty, dirty exhaust pipes like mine when even a Scoth Brite Pad was not cutting it. I took pics of my right pipe polished to give you guys an idea

Process:
Scotch Brite Pad filled with a Metal Polish
Wet Sand 600 grit (for inner pipe)
Wet Sand 1000 grit
Wet Sand 1500 Grit
Wet Sand 2000 Grit
Nevr-Dull Metal Polish (For Mirror shine use a Powerball with some metal polish on it)


Before Picture ^^ - Completely covered with Sud; the one on the right even looks shiner

After pictures - after wetsanding and Nevr-Dull Polish



^ Some water marks since I wasn't finish wetsanding yet

^^ The other tail pipe close up which looked shiny in the original picture

Hope this helps someone.

 

I am way too lazy for all of that, I like the easy approach with similiar results.

http://www.detailedimage.com/wax.php...hing-Soap-P84/

 

Nicely done!

 

i just use this on the tips and it looks great, no white powder or residue, and you dont even have to scrub hard

 

which polish would you guys suggest on the hks tips?

 

Do not polish them unless you want to lose the blue tips

 

meguiars nxt polish works wonders on the my HKS tips....looks brand spankin new, been doing it every few months...

blue does NOT fade

 

Blue does fade, it is due to diffraction of light from the varying thickness of the anodized coating. If you are not careful with the polish you can take that anodized oxide layer right off depending on how aggressive the metal polish is.

 

Why go through all the steps on sanding. Super fine steel wool #0000 work justs as good.

 

I think Super fine steel wool #0000 is onpar with wetsanding at 2000 grit which I could do if my exhaust pipe was not as dirty as it was. I couldn't do anything on the tip with anything less than using the Scotch Brite soaked with APC and metal polish. This took off most of the junk but I had to follow up with 1000/1500/2000 to get rid of the marks left by the scotch brite.


On a side note; my right exhaust I was able to polish to the same result with just 1500 followed by 2000. Almost same thing as the steel wool process (#000 followed by #0000) to polish the tips.

 

I polish my HKS tips with Mother's metal polish (don't know the exact name for it). I do not polish the "burnt" part itself.

 

I think it would be possible to just use a Mother Power ball and not risk losing the blue tip (or a an APC and a MF towel). Nevr-Dull is also a very weak polish but I would still be a bit careful around the tips.